Afternoon at Stark's
by bloodyXwhiteXrabbit
Summary: Little Loki is left in Tony Stark's care for an afternoon, broken apartment, ice-cream and a very strange friendship... nuff said :


**A/N: so, this might need some notice.  
I have just seen the Avengers and i have always loved Loki, but now i just had to write this.**

**I gathered some information about Loki, but honestly i have never read many Thor comics, so i would never claim to know the comic.  
**

**Please don't kill me if it is not 100% correct :)**

In the beginning, this was planned to be Thor - Loki centric, but in the end it turned into something else entirely.  
Anyhooo, enjoy^^ and maybe review.

i don't own aaaanything :)

* * *

Pepper had expected this afternoon to be, calm, relaxing, without any superhero or Stark business…  
Tony himself had told her to lay back, kick up her feet and take the day off, but as always, the phone rang.

For the third time…

In a row…

Annoyed, she picked up, her voice in 'Tony, you idiot I am going to kill you with a smile on my face'-mode.

"Yes?"

"Oh god Pepper, thank god for picking up. What took you so effing long?"

Pepper almost choked on the champagne she had been sipping.

Tony Stark, THE Tony Stark sounded completely desperate and in need of help. And he censored his swears…

"It's my day off, in case you forgot. Costume business?"

"Yeah, sorry about that, but I need you. Right. Now!"

Now she was alarmed.

"Tony, what happened?"

"I was just – " there was a crashing sound in the background and Pepper heard Tony shriek, manly of course.

" – What have you done you stupid brat?" he yelled.

"That was priceless! Oh god Pepper, help… no no no! put that down!"

Pepper heard a mischievous laugh, and then a loud growl.

"Good puppy, nice puppy! Pepper, please. I have never asked for…"

"Oh you so don't want to finish this sentence" Pepper interrupted him.

"Ok, I won't. But please, they are killing me… well at least one is completely ruining my house and the other,  
well the other creeps me the hell out. I'm going to kill that bastard and… oh fu… fudge!"

Suddenly the connection was gone and Pepper stared at the phone, not quite sure what was going on, but one thing she knew for sure.

Holiday was over…

* * *

"Fudge!" Tony yelled and dove for the priceless piece of art that had fallen from upstairs.

"Fudge?" A boy laughed.

"Oh, come on. You can swear all you want, I don't mind, right Leah?"

Tony Stark looked up at the boy who was staring down at him, hanging over the rails of his gallery.  
He took a deep breath, pushing back the urge to kill the little bastard and his creepy girlfriend who kept staring at him as if he was about to massacre the boy.

"Look, Loki. I don't destroy your stuff, so why don't you do the same?"

The boy chuckled.

"Bitch please, because I am bored? And there are a lot of well, toys here."

"Don't use your memes on me! Priceless pieces of art and mechanical devices are not toys!"

Loki rested his head on his folded hands and smiled innocently, when a little black bird landed on his shoulder.

"But Mister Stark, in the eyes of a child, everything can become a toy."

"You are nothing like a child you brat!"

Now, Loki frowned and turned around heading into the direction of his room.

Leah, who had watched the whole spectacle from a distance followed him, but not without shooting a glare in Tony's direction first.

"Well great" Tony sighed and brushed over his short hair with both hands.

"Upset a demi-god…"

He decided to leave the boy alone for as long he couldn't hear any crushing noises or screams,  
when the elevator door opened and Pepper entered the apartment, staring at the mess in disbelief.

"Wow" she said, and whistled.

"You really must be desperate, but honestly, I've seen worse."

Tony huffed and walked over to her.

But she was right.  
The boy had made quite a mess, destroying or disarraying all kind of stuff, but at least there was no damage to the floor, or the walls or Tony for that matter.

"Well, I am the best baby-sitter, this one is just a horrible child."

Pepper raised one eyebrow and crossed her arms, giving him a not convinced look.

"Yeah, well, let's not discuss that now, shall we?" she said, and started to pick up parts that weren't too sharp to touch.

"Hey, I am a great sitter!"

"How did you get into this situation at all? I mean, who would give his child into your hands, and who is it that you even agreed?"

Tony sighed and sat down.

"Look, I'll call the cleanup crew, don't bother. And for why and who, it's Thor's little brother. I suppose he couldn't find someone better in short time."

"Thor's… you mean Loki?" Pepper dropped the clutter and walked over to Tony, sitting down next to him.

"Yeah. And he's one hell of a brat. God of mischief… oh, and he brought his dog…"

"His dog? Anyway, where is the boy?"

"You know Loki! I kind of was a little itty bitty mean, and he went off to brood and pout. He always does that."

"You were mean to a little boy?" Pepper asked, looking more and more amused.

"He broke my stuff!" Tony said, pointing at the clutter, sounding offended.

"And then you, being an adult, had to be mean to a little boy instead of reasonable?"

Tony glared at her, and shrugged.

"He broke my stuff, in case you hadn't noticed" he repeated

"The little boy broke your toys? Now he is a really naughty boy. Mama will talk to him."

With that, Pepper got up and headed towards the stairs, leaving Tony staring at her, pouting.

"They aren't toys!" he said before she reached the stairs.

Amused, she glanced over the shoulder and smiled, almost belittling.

"No of course not."

* * *

Pouting, as predicted, Loki sat inside the guest room he had been assigned to and surfed the net with his phone.

He had forced Leah to sit next to him, and now together they were browsing some fun sites.

"Look, that one looks kind of like you" he laughed at a drawing of a broody girl with long black hair, called Emily.

She punched him and he winced, but kept chuckling.

They both glared at the door when it opened and a red haired woman stuck her head in cautiously.

"Hey guys" she greeted "Can I come in?"

Loki nodded and threw his phone on the bed.

"You are Pepper I guess, right? The one Stark called for help."

Smiling, Pepper stepped inside and nodded and opened her mouth to talk, but Loki beat her to it and held up a hand.

"If you want to yell at me, get in line. In Asgard, it is pretty rude to walk into someone's room like this.  
But I guess you have just as little sense for politeness as Stark has."

Offended, but still smiling, Pepper crossed her arms and shook her head slowly.

"I asked to come in and you nodded, here on earth that's an invitation."

Loki shrugged and smirked.

"Well, maybe I nodded at your greeting and not at your question, while you simply barged in without waiting for my answer."

"What – "

" – and I can see that you are insecure about me. You cross your arms in defence. So if you'd be so kind, leave again.  
Or I will have to make Leah throw you out, and believe me; she often mistakes the window for an acceptable exit."

Pepper looked from the smugly smiling boy to the girl that sat next to him and then to the window, gulping.

"Okay, well I guess I'll let you guys play" she said, retreating quickly.

* * *

Downstairs, Tony waited for Pepper to come down, and burst into laughter the moment, he saw her, shocked and a bit confused.

"See? He's no child!"

"Well he is quite a handful I guess…" said Pepper, slumping down next to him again.

"How'd he end up here anyway?"

"Thor had some business in Midgar, and he didn't want to leave Loki behind in Asgard,  
because, you know he's being bullied all the time, but it was shield business and he couldn't take him along, so he asked me."

"So he left the god of mischief in the capable hands of an over-grown child?"

"Well, practically, yeah."

"A demi-god, in the care of a guy with a god-complex…"

"Okay, that's enough Pepper"

Pepper smiled and patted Tony's shoulder.

"Didn't Thor leave anything that you could use to contact him? And maybe you should take him out, for ice-cream or something else."

"We have ice-cream here."

"Yeah, but sun's good for mister pale-face, and I don't mean Loki."

"Hey – " Tony stood up and held out a finger to his face " – my complexion is perfect."

* * *

In the end they went out for ice.  
Thor didn't pick up the phone and Tony hoped that at least that would get Loki to be a little less hostile towards him.

"You know, Stark, I am a child, but not a baby…" Loki said as they walked through central park, taking another bite from his mint-ice.

"Yeah, but everybody loves ice. I do."

Loki eyed him, annoyed.

"And that's everybody?"

Sighing, Tony finished his cherry-banana ice and tossed away the cup.

"You are eating ice-cream, don't you like it?"

Instead of answering, Loki focused back on his ice, pouting and Tony chuckled softly.  
Like this, Loki looked nothing like the villain he had been.  
A green shirt and black jeans, paired with matching sneakers made him look like an ordinary child, but in his green eyes, Tony saw something else.  
Loki was well guarded and his eyes darted around, as if he expected something to happen at any moment.  
The adult Loki had been even more calculating and ever since his return,  
Loki was a lot more gullible and less evil, but still more of an introverted boy when he wasn't doing any mischief.  
And Tony couldn't tell why, but somehow he felt as if he should talk to the boy.  
He glanced behind him, where Leah, Loki's guardian, was curiously eating her blackberry filled cone and Pepper was trying to make a decent conversation.

"Hey boy, wanna sit down for a moment?" he pointed towards an empty bench that stood nearby.

Shrugging, Loki followed Tony to the bench and started studying the people that passed by.

For a moment the two of them sat there in comfortable silence, until Tony cleared his throat.

"So. I hear that it's not easy in Asgard?"

"Oh, well, same old same old…" Loki said, not turning to look at Tony.

"Well, look at it like this. You can tell me about your problems, it's not like I'd tell Thor, and you can complain all you want about them."

Finally, Loki turned and sighed.

"Why do you even care?"

Tony shrugged.

"Honestly? I don't know. It's not like I'd ever been bullied, I mean, look at me."

Loki cocked an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I know, awesome. But seriously. If you have problems, tell people.  
Some of them may even listen. Live life loud and fast, make yourself noticeable."

Loki laughed bitter.

"Tell someone that you don't like the way you are being treated,  
when you have ruined their lives multiple times in a previous life.  
And I don't really care about the others, or even being treated like this, they don't hurt me, it's just that he…"

Suddenly, Loki stopped and focused back on the people passing by.

Oh, Tony thought, so that's bothering him.

The boy was worried about how all of this affected Thor, his big brother…  
Feeling a bit of sympathy towards the boy, he leaned back and sighed again.

"Look, Loki, if it's any comfort, Thor doesn't care about that. I think he's – "

He was interrupted by his phone, and he picked up, watching Loki looking at him curiously.

"Stark?... Oh, hi Thor… Yeah, he's right here… Is he a good boy?"

Tony glanced at Loki and saw a bit of insecurity in the green eyes

"Yeah, he's really good… no, nothing at all happened. We even went out for ice.  
Oh I just called because I wanted to know what kind of ice Loki likes… yeah, see ya."

Tony held out the phone to Loki and mouthed 'For you'.  
Confused, Loki took it and Tony was surprised by the shy smile that replaced the usual scowl.  
He had seen Loki grin or smirk several times, but not smile like this, completely innocent.

"Hello" he said cautiously, and his smile widened.

"No, I'm fine… Yeah, he's-" Loki glanced at Tony " - he's cool, I guess. Okay, bye."

He hung up and handed the phone to Tony.

"Why didn't you tell him the truth? That I, well, about the mess in your home" Loki asked, eying Tony suspiciously.

"Well" Tony winked "you've been good with one or two slips, who cares?"

Amused by the surprise in Loki's eyes, Tony ruffled the boy's hair.

"Come on, he said he'd get you soon, and I don't think you would like him to come inside, right?"

Loki shook his head and got up, smoothing down his hair.  
Pepper and Leah, who had been standing a bit further away,  
having their own mostly one-sided conversation, joined the guys and together they made their way back to the stark tower.

* * *

"Friend!"

Tony heard Thor before he saw him, stomping towards them, dressed in civilian clothes that looked rather tight.

"Hi" Tony greeted, waving, but less as a greeting than in defence before he was grabbed and pulled into an awkward hug.

"Nice to see you too" he said, gasping for air and patting Thor's back in an attempt to get out.

When he was released, Tony rolled his eyes at Pepper, who got the gentle and polite greeting.

"Now where's…" Thor asked, looking around and found what he was looking for

"Ah, there you are!" he said with his colossal voice, pulling the fleeing Loki into his arms and swinging him around, hugging him tightly.

"Release me" Loki gasped and glared at the laughing Tony as good as he could, with his brother pressing out all the air in his lungs.

Thor obeyed only hesitantly.

"Now, let's go, where's your dog?"

Loki whistled and a dog, raced out of the building.  
Thori had been disguised as a normal dog in Midgar, but still Tony flinched when the dog's eyes rested on him.

"Nice doggy"

Loki chuckled and Thor turned to Tony and Pepper.

"Thank you very much for your help. I am in your debt."

Tony waved it off.

"Don't mention it. He's a nice boy."

"If that is so, my friend, I can surely drop him off some other day as well, right?  
You are the only one that hasn't complained about a trashed living room, or terrible pranks so far."

"Oh, I mean, yeah I guess" Tony replied, not sure if he really wanted to look after Loki again, especially not when he saw the demi-god grinning maliciously behind Thor.

"We'd love to" Pepper added happily.

"Thank you. Well, come on brother, let's go home. Do you want to stop at the place with the clown first?"

Loki glared at him.

"McDonalds? No, the food is terrible."

Tony looked after the two and chuckled when he heard Thor's answer.

"But they have toys there."

"I don't want a toy" Loki snapped.

But somehow Tony suspected that it wasn't Loki who wanted the toy, but the huge child next to him.

When they were out of sight, Tony turned to Pepper.

"We'd love to? Really?"

Pepper gasped, faking innocence

"We don't? That's for my lost holiday" she said, kissing Tony on the cheek and stalking off into the building.

"Great" Tony sighed.

"Just Great."


End file.
